Machine type communication is increasingly used in cellular access networks, as well as in information and telecommunications systems in general. Examples of systems using machine type communication devices for machine type communication operations may include: remotely controlled power meters as well as metering machine type communication devices, remotely controlled machine type communication devices for controlling functions e.g. in a home which make it possible to turn on an heating prior to arriving home.
In addition to such examples of stationary machine type communication, there are also applications of mobile machine type communication, such as remotely monitoring and/or controlling functions or status information in a car, boat, or some other kind of vehicle.
Due to the vast amount of possible applications for machine type communication, machine type communication devices and machine type communication systems, an important increase in signaling traffic and in data traffic in cellular access systems can be expected.
Release 10 of the Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP Rel-10) refers to applications or scenarios of machine type communication (or machine to machine communication (M2M communication) scenarios) and typically defines a plurality of machine type communication devices which are controlled by a machine type communication server. The machine type communication server is a functional entity that is either part of the mobile communication network or which is located outside of the mobile communication network (belonging or operated by a machine to machine service provider) to which the machine type communication devices are connected or with which the machine type communication devices communicate.
A typical machine type communication device is connected through cellular access networks to mobile communication networks, the access networks including typically GSM (Global System of Mobile Communication) access networks, GPRS (General Packet Radio System) access networks, and/or EPS/LTE (Evolved Packet System/Long Term Evolution) access networks. The application in which a machine type communication device is used needs the machine type communication device to report data, or it may happen that the machine type communication server needs to transmit data to the machine type communication device.
Machine type communication devices typically do not need to continuously exchange data with the mobile communication network, i.e. either for a data transfer from the mobile communication network towards the machine type communication device or for a data transfer from the machine type communication device to the mobile communication network. In contrast, machine type communication devices typically make only sporadic use of the mobile communication network, i.e. such machine type communication devices are typically accessing the mobile communication network, e.g., once per hour and/or once per day or the like. Additionally, machine type communication devices are typically accessing the mobile communication network only for a short interval of time, such as typically only for a few seconds or a few minutes (typically less than 10 minutes).
Conventionally, a mobile communication network uses a Home Location Register functionality and/or a Home Subscriber Server functionality for its plurality of subscribers, typically in the form of a user database that supports other network entities of the mobile communication network in handling requests of the different user equipments. The user database or subscriber database typically comprises the subscription-related information (such, e.g., subscriber profiles), and performs authentication and authorization of the user or subscriber.
Conventional mobile communication networks typically use different subscriber identifiers for different user equipments, and also for different machine type communication devices, leading to comparably high costs.